Emery girls look good and play tough ball

With three more victories last week, Lady Spartan Head Coach Steve Gordon has become cautiously optimistic with his young squad of basketball players. Emery went on the road Tuesday and came home with a 59-43 victory over the Union Cougars in Roosevelt and then came home and won two in the Castle Country Classic over Dixie High 60-45 and Judge Memorial 48-37.

At Union, Emery used a big third quarter to put a close game away. Emery led 25-20 at the half and then outscored the Cougars 20-7 to lead 45-27 after three periods. Leading the Spartans in scoring was Camille Fehlberg with 18 points. Also scoring for the Spartans were Natalee Hanson with 11 points, Shala Pitchforth with eight, Ashley Hansen with seven, Meagan Pearson, Alexis Swasey and Tracy Norton with four each and Tahna Merrill with one.

Back in the Spartan Center against Dixie, Emery got off to a big start as they outscored the Flyers 17-5 in the first quarter and 15-7 in the second to lead at the half 32-12. Swasey had a big first half as she scored 13 points on her way to an 18 point game. Emery led by 27 before the reserves finished out the game. Also scoring were Natalee with 12 points, Pearson with 10, Callie Seeley with six, Ashley and Merrell with four each, Fehlberg with three, Shaylie Huntington with two and Norton with one.

On Saturday, the Spartans faced Judge who provided a good test for the Spartans as they were physical and played a tough man defense that this young squad handled well. In the first half, the refs called 25 fouls on the two teams as they were at the line all night long. Swasey picked up her fourth foul midway through the second period but stayed in the game with some smart play.

Leading the Spartans again was Swasey with 13 points and Natalee with 10 points. Fehlberg added 7 points and Ashley added 6 points. Pitchforth, Seeley and Huntington each added 4 points.

Coach Gordon had this to say about his team, "Our hustle on defense is winning these games for us. These girls have really good attitudes and everybody is working hard to improve their game." Gordon was impressed with how well his team was coming together as a unit and how coachable they are.The Lady Spartans continued their good play with more good performances at the Bear River Tournament in Tremonton. They played three games last weekend and won two and lost one at the buzzer. They lost to host Bear River as the Bears' Erica Park hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Bear River a 49-47 victory. Emery responded the next two nights with a 68-35 win over Hillcrest and a 61-45 win over American Fork. Emery is now 6-1 on the season.

Against the Bears, neither team was able to mount much of a lead in the game. Emery was up by 3 points at the end of the first quarter,13-10, it was tied at the half, 23-23, Bear River led by 3 points at the end of the third quarter, 39-36 and Emery had the lead at the end of the game until that last shot. Hanson led the Spartans with 15 points, followed by Swasey with 13 and Fehlberg with nine. Also scoring were Ashley Hansen with 4 points and Callie Seely, Shaylie Huntington, and Tahna Merrell with 2 points each.

Against Hillcrest, Emery took a 12-10 lead into the second quarter where they went on an 18-5 run and led at the half 30-15. After a close 13-12 third quarter, the Spartans finished the game on a 25-8 run to win 68-35.

Emery finished the tournament against American Fork where they took the early lead and basically added to it all game long. Emery led 35-19 at the half.

Hanson was again leading scorer with 22 points followed by Hansen with 11 points and Swasey and Fehlberg with 9 points apiece. Shala added 5 points, Callie added 3 points and Shaylie added 2 points to close out the scoring.

The Lady Spartans are exciting to watch and good seats are always available in the Spartan Center. They are at home Wednesday night against Tooele, game time at 7 p.m. for the varsity, sophomores and JV earlier in the afternoon.